How can Manchester United solve Old Trafford's flat atmosphere?

Manchester United have some of the game's best away fans but the atmopshere in Old Trafford can often be sterile

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Two hours before United opened their season with a home win against Spurs on Saturday; a former Spanish footballer sent a text to ask if I’d be at Old Trafford, stating that he was really looking forward to seeing the game on television. I replied with a picture of the view outside the ground as confirmation, to which he wrote: “Best atmosphere ever in that stadium! Great sunny day for game.”

I was struck by his perception of Old Trafford, especially as he’d played at hundreds of grounds, because it doesn’t tally with mine. There are many football stadiums in the world with a far better atmosphere than England’s biggest club football ground, but then his last experience of Old Trafford was for the game against Real Madrid in 2013 and the old ground was bouncing.

Soon after, I saw a lone Tottenham fan killing time before kick-off. He’d travelled overnight from Dublin, his Spurs scarf worn proudly around his neck and tucked into his coat – on one of the rare days that a coat wasn’t needed in Manchester. He was affable and explained how the ferry from Ireland to Holyhead had been full of United fans, with him as one of three Spurs’ fans. He’d managed an hour’s sleep and didn’t think his team would win, but that wasn’t the point. He followed Tottenham regardless and went to so many games that he qualified for tickets in their stringent away ballots. One of the best things about Spurs, he explained, was their away following.

A few hours later, their 3,000 fans showed why they’re so highly rated on the road. They lost the game, but Spurs played well, dominated for significant periods of the match and sang throughout the game – both at the correct speed and with passion. Away fans are comprised of the hardcore who tend to make more noise and United’s away following can be superb and far, far bigger than any other. Away reds regularly oversubscribe the away allocation by 6 to 10 times and United could have easily sold 20,000 tickets for Friday night’s game at Villa Park rather than the 3,026 who managed to get away tickets.

Old Trafford's acoustic problems

It’s different inside Old Trafford. That a mate in the Stretford End claimed he couldn’t hear the audible visiting contingent is an indicator of the acoustic problems.

Another friend in the East Stand could hear them loud and proud. Both claimed they couldn’t hear United’s own singing section. Sat in the main stand, I thought the singing section, a wedge of around 1,800 seats, sounded loud enough, though sometimes you could see them singing without hearing them. The noise inside Old Trafford seems to get caught up in a swirling vortex under some of football’s biggest cantilever roofs.

Old Trafford has acoustics issues and the club have had experts in to confirm this, but it remains baffling. For the biggest games as a kid – and Tottenham at home in the 80s was a huge game - I could hear the noise from the ground three miles away. As with most big stadiums in Britain, the atmosphere began declining as soon as terraces started making way for all seated areas after Hillsborough. The demographic of football fans shifted too and there are many other contributing factors as to why the noise levels are not what they were.

The noise level from fans in Greece, Italy, Germany, Turkey and Serbia puts the Premier League’s packed libraries to shame

Yet Old Trafford can still be magnificent for the biggest games, rendering any talks of acoustics moot. While some of the loudest fans in Europe watch their stadiums which don’t even have a roof to contain the atmosphere – though the dreadful Camp Nou isn’t one of them. There, Barça have also introduced a vocal section for this season. It’s as contrived as rival New York football fans fighting and a little happy clappy, with fans issued with little plastic flags and a couple of trumpeters, but the huge bowl is so quiet that they are heard.

The Premier League has many virtues, but the noise level from fans in countries including Greece, Italy, Germany, Turkey and Serbia puts the Premier League’s packed libraries to shame – not that the league’s marketing hype will acknowledge that when they’re telling the world about how England’s top-flight is the planet’s finest. It could be considered so for several reasons, but if you want the loudest noise levels and the most colourful fans, look outside England.